Mary’s Christmas Tree Mom loved Christmas. It was by far her best time of year. Trimming the tree was a special event in itself usually accompanied by high expectations, a good bit of work, some frustrations, and finally delight. Also, notice her love for dolls even at Christmas time. I’ve posted several photographs of mom in the past; instead this year, a photo of her favorite Christmas tree. Fond memories of a mom who could not do too much for others!

The Minolta XG-9 Camera is an electronic 35mm SLR film camera with automatic and manual exposure control. It’s also known as the XG-S in Japan. By providing automatic exposure photography at a reasonable cost, the Minolta XG-9 camera was designed to be used in aperture priority auto-exposure mode. It reflects the advances in electronics and miniaturization resulting in a much smaller body than the SR-T cameras. And, the XG-9 also accepts an auto winder, the Minolta Auto Winder G, that provides motorised frame advance at up to two frames per second.

The XG-9 included many improvements over its predecessors. The new Acute-matte screen results in easier focusing and improved light transmission. When set to auto-exposure mode, it provides a full information viewfinder. It also includes a depth-of-field preview button and is available in both chrome and black.

The Minolta XG-9 was in production between March 1979-1981. List price for a new Minolta XG-9 Camera in 1981 was approximately $250 (app. $657 USD in 2016 dollars). Today, used price for a camera in very good condition runs around $100 USD including several lenses.

Knik Glacier near Palmer This image, taken in July, comes from my 1995 trip to Alaska which will be featured in a series of posts this summer. The tops of these peaks are just over 10,000 feet. The image started as a Kodachrome slide. Recently, I scanned the slide and restored the image.

Flying to Alaska This image gives you a sneak peek at a series of posts describing my flying trip to Alaska some years ago. I’m planning to make a post for each day I was gone describing that day including flying, weather, points of interest, challenges, and accomplishments. The images, like this one, will be either slides or prints which were scanned and restored into digital format. Each post will contain several images to help describe the day’s activities. The target date to begin the series is July 10th. Hopefully, I’ll also post a few more sneak peeks between then and now.

Meet Wee Willie Winkie! He has the distinction of being our first Pug. In this film photo, he’s a puppy, about 6 months old, visiting grandma’s house. Winkie began our tradition of Pug ownership. He set the tone and the expectations of many Pugs to come. And, after his people, he loved bananas above all else. If, while he was outside; doing his duty, you had the audacity to eat a banana without him, upon hitting the door, he gave you the “eye”! After scanning the slide into digital, the restoration was quite simple thanks to the vibrant Kodachrome color. A couple of age spots needed touched up and a bit more detail helped.

Clouds This film photograph was taken through an airliner window flying at around FL 300. We had just topped this squall line of thunderstorms somewhere over the Midwest. This photo is also the first of hopefully many in my new Film Series. These film images, mostly slides, were taken by various film cameras before I switched to digital. Now, I am scanning them into digital format and restoring them, if necessary. This clouds image did not require much restoration.